"Ah!" Cheng Ji pointed at Li Jing in surprise and said, "I remember... You are Li's cousin! Didn't you leave? Why are you still in Jinling City
When Li Jing saw that she recognized him, his eyes sparkled and he smiled, "I was originally ready to leave, but when I was packing up at the inn, the innkeeper told me that today is the Ghost Festival, and there are many people releasing lanterns by the Mochou Lake and Qinhuai River. It's very effective. I thought that I had come to Jinling City and had not been to Mochou Lake, so I brought a servant here... I never thought that I would meet the guards of the Duke of Liang's Mansion. I heard people next to me say that they were guarding the Duke of Liang's Mansion and several young ladies from the Cheng family to release river lanterns together. So I asked... and I actually met my cousin Ji!"
Cheng Ji laughed.
Li Jing asked, "How long will it take for cousin to go home? I brought a few guards with me. Do you want me to take you back?"
"No, no." Cheng Ji smiled and said, "It's enough to have the guards of the Duke of Liang's Mansion. If you have nothing to do, just go and have a look. In addition to Shengqi Tower with the handwriting of Emperor Taizu, Baoyue Tower and Lake Center Pavilion are all worth visiting in Mochou Lake. You may want to go and have a look."
Li Jing responded with a smile, hesitated for a moment, and then bowed and said goodbye.
Cheng Ji heaved a long sigh of relief.
Zhou Shaojin asked in confusion: "Why are you taking a breath?"
Cheng Ji asked curiously: "Don't you think so?"
"What do you feel?" Zhou Shaojin asked.
"Don't you think his eyes are very sharp when he looks at people?" Cheng Ji said, "I don't know why, but when I see him looking at me, I get very nervous, as if I'm afraid I've done something wrong, and I wish he'd leave quickly."
how so
Zhou Shaojin was speechless, wondering if Li Jing really wanted to visit Mochou Lake as he said, or did he suddenly decide not to leave after meeting Cheng Jia
Cheng Ji had already shouted, "Let's not talk about him anymore. Today is the 15th day of the seventh lunar month... The gates of hell open in the middle of the night... We'd better go back early."
Ah Zhu nodded repeatedly, and several people agreed to meet again in September, and then went back home.
Not only was Cheng Ji being asked by Jiang about the boat trip, Zhou Shaojin was thinking about how to find an opportunity to talk to Cheng Chi about Eunuch Yang, but Cheng Chi sent someone to see her.
The woman seemed to be about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. She was obviously a young girl, but she had her hair tied up like a woman. She wore a moon-white silk stand-up collar shirt with lotus-seed-sized pearl buttons inside, and a lilac-colored bodice with a border of precious flower buds outside. She had a long face, willow-shaped eyebrows, and a dimple on the left corner of her mouth when she smiled. Although she was pretty, she was far inferior to Jiying. But compared to Jiying, she was more gentle and pretty.
She introduced herself and said her name was Nanping.
Zhou Shaojin was shocked and asked, "Nanping? The Nanping who is in charge of sewing in Uncle Chi's room?"
Zhou Ping smiled and nodded.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but look at her carefully.
She stood there with a smile on her face, allowing Zhou Shaojin to look at her. She was not only steady but also generous.
She doesn't look like a maid at all. Even the eldest daughter of an ordinary family doesn't have such demeanor as her.
Zhou Shaojin muttered to himself and asked Nanping, "I wonder what Uncle Chi wants to talk to me about?"
Nan Ping glanced at Shi Xiang who was serving her.
Zhou Shaojin knew what was going on and sent Shi Xiang away under the pretext of asking her to wash some grapes. He then invited Nanping to sit down and talk.
"I dare not!" Nan Ping smiled, but refused to do so. She stood in front of Zhou Shaojin with her hands down and said respectfully, "Our fourth master asked me to ask the second young lady. Yesterday, you went boating with Miss Zhu from the Duke of Liang's mansion. In addition to your sister and Miss Seventeen from the Gu family, was Miss Jia from the third house also there?"
"Yes!" Zhou Shaojin didn't know if Cheng Ju had gotten into any trouble, so he said hurriedly, "She has been with me the whole time, and she hasn't gone anywhere... Even if she has gone somewhere, I will know it very quickly... within twenty breaths at most."
Nan Ping nodded with a smile and said, "Second Miss, please don't misunderstand. The Fourth Master has no other intentions." Then she pondered, "It's like this, Second Miss. Yesterday, the Fourth Master and the Prince of the Duke of Liang's Mansion went boating on the lake together. Later, I heard from the guards that he ran into the eldest daughter of the Duke of Liang's Mansion. The Prince chased after him, but when the Prince brought the eldest daughter back, he asked Eunuch Yang to buy four jade pendants, saying that they were gifts for the four young ladies. At first, the Fourth Master didn't pay attention, but after Eunuch Yang whispered to the Prince, the Prince suddenly showed great courtesy to the Fourth Master and asked about the Cheng family... The Fourth Master couldn't find out what happened at the time, and thinking that the Second Miss was there, he asked this servant to come and ask."
If that were the case, Cheng Chi wouldn't have sent someone to ask her.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but ask: "Is that all Uncle Chi said? Is there anything else you want to tell me?"
Nan Ping looked at Zhou Shaojin deeply and said with a smile, "The fourth master just asked me to ask if Miss Jia was with the eldest and second young ladies that day, but he didn't say anything else."
Zhou Shaojin always felt that Nanping was not telling the truth, but she couldn't force others. After a few pleasantries, Zhou Shaojin told Nanping about Cheng Ju's observation of Eunuch Yang, and said, "I don't know if it's a big deal. Please help me deal with it, Uncle Chi."
"I'm sorry to trouble you, Second Miss." Nanping smiled, knelt down and said goodbye to Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin asked Shi Xiang to send Nanping out.
When Nanping went out, he saw a half-embroidered bed on the bed in the main hall. His eyes froze for a moment, and he paused before following Shi Xiang out the door.
The more Zhou Shaojin thought about it, the weirder it seemed.
If Uncle Chi just wanted to know who went to Duke Liang's Mansion with her, he could have just asked the doorman. Why did he specifically send Nanping to ask him
Is there any other deeper meaning behind this
Why did Uncle Chi ask who were the people who went with her
What exactly happened
She couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried, so she had to put the matter aside and start caring about Li Jing.
Zhou Shaojin asked Cheng Ji: "Has your cousin from the Li family left?"
Cheng Ji had been released from house arrest, but Jiang did not allow her to go to class, and Jing'anzhai was still closed.
"Who knows." Cheng Ji lazily hid in bed and moaned, "My shoulders are so sore and my legs are about to break. I don't want to learn the rules."
Jiang found an aunt from the palace and asked her to teach Cheng Jia the rules. Cheng Jia only spent the whole morning learning, but she felt like she had lost half her life.
Zhou Shaojin frowned slightly.
Jiang must have seen that Cheng Ji and Ah Zhu became friends and thought that Cheng Ji's marriage options would be wider, so she hurriedly asked someone to teach Cheng Ji the rules.
In this case, it would be even more impossible for Li Jing to marry Cheng Ji.
But if she didn't use this method, Cheng Ji wouldn't be released!
At least now Li Jing has taken a fancy to Cheng Ji just like in his previous life. As for whether Cheng Ji likes Li Jing or not... Anyway, whoever likes the other more will suffer a little. In the matter between Cheng Ji and Li Jing, it is better for Li Jing to suffer a loss than for Cheng Ji to suffer a loss...
She comforted herself, and Old Lady Guan called her and her sister over to talk.
Zhou Shaojin didn't know what was going on, and went to Jiashu Hall with his sister feeling a little uneasy.
Cheng Mian and Mrs. Mian were also there, and everyone had a happy look on their faces.
Zhou Shaojin and Zhou Chujin were at a loss as to what to do.
Old Lady Guan took Zhou Chujin's hand and said to Zhou Shaojin, "Your father wrote a letter saying that he has received a transfer order from the Ministry of Personnel to be the prefect of Baoding. The handover will be at the end of July and he will take up the post in late August. If there is time, he wants to go back to Nanjing to burn incense for his ancestors."
In her previous life, she learned the news when her father was already the prefect of Baoding. In this life, she learned the news when her father received the transfer order.
Does her grandmother think that she is a steady and trustworthy girl like her sister
Zhou Shaojin was very happy.
Mrs. Miao was afraid that she didn't understand, so she explained to them, "You can't enter the Hanlin Academy without a Jinshi, and you can't enter the cabinet without a Hanlin. If you want to stay in the Hanlin Academy, you have to pass the Shujishi exam. Your father was sent out, and if he wanted to return to the capital to serve as an official, he had to be recommended by the court. But if you want to be recommended by the court, you have to have qualifications, and if you want to have the corresponding qualifications, you have to be a prefect in places like Baoding and Jinling. And as long as you go to the capital to serve as an official, with your father's ability, he can at least become a minor official. Chujin, Shaojin, although your father didn't get promoted in rank, he served in different places, and his future fortunes will be different."
Zhou Chujin was smiling from ear to ear, so excited that he was speechless.
Zhou Shaojin knew, however, that in his previous life, his father did not serve as an official in Beijing, but went to Guangdong and became a governor... and never returned to Jinling City.
Was it because he felt that her story had brought him shame, and he couldn't face his former colleagues and classmates as if nothing had happened; or was it because he had a grudge and was unwilling to accept the Cheng family's help... To her, it would always be a mystery.
But in this life, my father won’t go back to his old ways, right
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but burst into tears.
Mrs. Miao smiled and held her shoulders, saying angrily, "Silly child, this is a happy event! Why are you crying?"
Zhou Shaojin smiled and wiped the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief, choking with sobs as he asked, "When can father come back?"
"So Shaojin is missing his father!" Old Madam Guan laughed and said, "He said he will hand over to the new Nanchang prefect as soon as possible. It would be great if he can come back to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Zhou Shaojin nodded continuously.
At night, she slept in her sister's room and asked Zhou Chujin: "Do you still remember what daddy looks like?"
She could no longer remember her father's facial features, but she remembered that he had a very beautiful beard.
"I remember." Zhou Chujin couldn't sleep. He stared at the ceiling with his eyes wide open, recalling, "He was as tall as Uncle Mian... He had fair skin and dressed very simply... He was very serious... The maids at home were afraid of him... But he smiled when he saw us... When he taught me to write, he liked to hold you on his lap and tease you while watching me write... He also bought us kites and took us to fly kites by Mochou Lake... He taught me to recognize the signs on the street... He bought me pine nut candies..."
Zhou Shaojin lay on the pillow and burst into tears!
Zhou Chujin also burst into tears.
This life and the previous life will definitely be very different.
Zhou Shaojin swore secretly in his heart.
Although the four branches did not publicize it, each branch had its own channels, and soon the news that Zhou Zhen was transferred to be the prefect of Baoding spread in Jiuru Lane.
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O(∩_∩)O Haha... I can finally update in time!
※(To be continued)